New Carb on Old B

[Greg Ballantyne]

I hadn't run my old '49 B much for about a year, and the last time I had it running I had to choke it good to keep it running smooth. Then we had several hard downpours in late August and early September, my lane washed bad and I couldn't get the B running to grade it. I drained the old gas out and replaced with fresh gas without improvement, so I took the Carb off and soaked it in a bucket of gas for a week. I tried to get numbers off it for a rebuild kit from this site, but could not find the right number on it. Anyhow after a weeks soaking I just tried putting it back on, and the engine started on the third crank. My B has an electric starter, but the Bendix nut is wore on the inside and sticks on the shoulder of the shaft, you know how they are.... so I use the hand crank to start it. As soon as it was warmed up I went to grading the lane. On the second pass up the hill, the B quit and gas just poured out the carb drain hole. As I was going up hill I had to get the blade off the back (my B has a homemade three point hitch setup I made about 20 years back), drag it off to the side, and drift the tractor backwards down the lane where it sat while I went in the house and ordered a new replacement from this site. I got the new Carb in a few days, and Friday I put it on. That took a while, I had to modify the Carb three ways and the intake just one way, but after about 3 hours I was ready to try starting it. I hadn't hardly twitched the crank and it was running. That new Carb runs that old B like anything. I should have gotten one a few years ago. This site turned out to have the best deal, I believe it was $69 less than the other two I checked out. And now the old B is running like it was new again, or at least the best its run since I've had it.
 

[old]

Well your first mistake was to soak it in gas since gas is what caused the problem in the first place. Those carbs are easy to rebuild and once done right will work better then that new one but hey its your machine. A good soaking in a good carb cleaner and a can of spray cleaner and some air and small piece of wire and your old carb would have been as good as new
 

[bg/mo]

Great job,, Got a deal on a carb and got your tractor running. The two together make for a great day.
 

[Greg Ballantyne]

And to think that all this time I thought that old tractor RAN on gas.... but now it runs better than it has for 20 years.... the only part I don"t like about the new carb is I had to pay $243 for it....
 

[old]

The problem is the old gas had left varnish behind and that in turn is what caused the problem in the carb and soaking it in gas was not going to remove what the gas left behind in the first place. Now if you had used a good carb cleaner soak can and soaked it say 24 hours and then sprayed it out with spray carb cleaner and air and used a small wire you could have saves at least $200 of that $243 it cost you